Dollar Store Placemat Pumpkin (Cut File Included!)

It is Silhouette Challenge Time! The theme this month was “Fall” and since I’m in Halloween mode I decided on a Jack-o-lantern.

When I saw these round orange woven placemats at the Dollar store, I knew I could add some vinyl and make a cute wall hanging. And that is exactly what I did. The trick was choosing the face. Originally I was going to just find a Jack o’ lantern face and trace it, but then I decided I would try my hand at designing my own so I could share that file with you!
That is right! This month I am going out on a limb and attempting to share my first ever cut files! I have never offered a free download before and I really want to start doing it more often.. so this is a trial run to see how well it works out. If you have a cutting machine (Silhouette or Cricut) the file for the pumpkin’s face is available at the bottom of this post. Not only that but you also will be signing up to receive additonal Silhouette inspiration, DIY, decorating and more!

So how did I design the cut file? And how did i get the vinyl to stick to that highly textured surface? Never fear! I’m going to walk you through it!
I designed the face in Photoshop (although you could do it directly in your Silhouette software, since I am using really basic shapes.) The eyes and nose are pretty easy.. Just a triangle and series of circles on top of each other:

The mouth is the fun part of the face, and it wasn’t too hard either. First I stacked two ovals to create the smile:Once I had the smile I added words in a block font:Then I just stretched the words until they filled in the black area (In photoshop I used the “transform" and "create warped text” options, but in Silhouette you can snap text to a curved line to get the same result:
Ta-dah! The finished face:I cut it out of black vinyl (I used Oracal 651 permanent) and because I wanted to space out the features a little more, I cut them apart:
I used contact paper to transfer and I stuck it down to the placemat:It does take a little effort to get it off the transfer sheet (I had to use a needle to get it started and make sure the smaller pieces came off.) I am glad I didn’t use regular transfer tape since it is a lot stickier than the clear dollar store contact paper I used.

Since the placemat has a lot of texture, the vinyl doesn’t want to stay stuck down, so my tip for that is to heat it with a hair dryer. This softens the vinyl and allows it to come into contact with the entire surface. It works great, just don’t overheat it or the vinyl will begin to curl (a little goes a long way):If you look closely you can see how the vinyl is contoured to the shape of the placemat:To finish it off I glue gunned some ribbon to the top of the placemat as a stem and leaves (gotta love chevron!):And I used double sided tape to hang it on an interior door:
Super fast and easy. Less than 30 minutes to make and about $1.50 in supplies!